2012-04-06

Captain's Log, Supplemental: A Final Word

So that's it -- that's where my life got too complicated to continue transcribing what happened each day on MER. It's been a blast to revisit MER's early days -- it all flows by so fast when it's happening, and it's been a treat to get to live it all over again.

And, of course, to contemplate how my life has changed in those years. Deaths, divorce, new beginnings -- the rovers have been there to anchor me through ups and downs. No matter how bad things got, I'd go to work, reach across a hundred million miles of emptiness, and move something on the surface of another world. It was always magic. I can't imagine what it would have been like without my twin girls, and I'm deeply grateful that I haven't had to find out.

I'll try to write another blog like this one for MSL, though of course you might have to wait five years to read it. (Discussions with JPL's media folks will begin soon.) In the meantime, whatever happens with that, you can always follow along with MER at the MER home page, and of course I'll continue spouting off from time to time at my Twitter and Google+ accounts.

As I always say, it's one thing to drive a rover around on Mars -- that would be cool, but the real fun for me is that I get to take everyone in the world along in the back seat. This blog has been another way to do that, and I'll miss it now that it's gone.

18 comments:

I haven't missed a post since day one, and I'm gonna miss them sorely now. It's been an incredible adventure following those daring rovers around, thank you so much for sharing! Can't wait for the new chapter to begin next August ;)

I've been following since the day you posted that you were going to start this on slashdot. It has been _really_ interesting to hear your personal account of working on a project like this. It lets us share in the feelings of working on something that has been this exciting.

I appreciate the time you took share this information, though hopefully this is more an intermission and less an ending. I can't understand why they would make you delay this or the MSL story as it is both free and extremely awesome advertising. Take it from the next generation if they want to inspire us this is an excellent start as it is both amazing but also shows the ups and downs of the process. Not to mention lessons learned from one of the guys doing the learning. This cannot be replaced by a poster or video clip or a movie really. Seriously thank you.

Scott, This has been a really fun blog. I enjoyed reading about Spirit and Oppy, almost like I was part of the team. I hope you can keep it up with Curiosity! Thanks for taking the time to do share this with everyone.

Thanks so much for posting this journal. It's really peaked my interest in the MER and MSL missions and I look forward to seeing your updates from MSL, even if they do end up coming out five years later. (though hopefully we won't have to wait that long)

Thank you from France, where I enjoyed every passage on you site for the past few years. It is awesome science, and you're an awesome scientist, spreading news and much more : actual confidence on what lies ahead for us.

Great blog that you had here. Our interest in Mars is never ending and your blog has been here to inspire curiosity and interest in this great planet. Please feel free to check out my blog if you like. http://thoughtsonmars.wordpress.com/